Why disaffected young Afghans are warming to a Taliban comeback

Young Afghans play cricket in Shar-e Naw Park in downtown Kabul. As misery builds in the capital, more Afghans their age appear open to the idea of making concessions to the Taliban in hopes of achieving peace, stability and prosperity. (Tim Craig/THE WASHINGTON POST)

By Tim Craig-March 1

KABUL — At this stage of his career, Ahmad Jawad would like to be selling the terraced estates that housed Taliban leaders before they were driven from the Afghan capital in 2001.

But the 27-year-old realtor hasn’t sold a house in nearly a year, and he is so desperate for money that he hopes the Taliban returns to Kabul to impose “rule of law.”

“If they can enforce the law like it was enforced during their reign, they are welcome,” said Jawad, who blames unemployment, graft and the lack of security for a collapse in Kabul’s housing market. “There was less crime. There was less corruption. There was less embezzlement.”

His words reflect a shift in the opinions held by some of Kabul’s millennials on both the Taliban and President Ashraf Ghani’s government: Bashing the Islamist insurgency has gone out of style as frustration with the current leadership mounts.

In the years after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, young urban Afghans were among the most vocal opponents of the Taliban, recoiling not just at its brutality, which included public executions, but also the restraints it imposed on women and its demands that men grow beards.

Noorullah Noori, 24, looks online for ways to jumpstart his logistics business. As Afghanistan’s economy flounders, he has struggled to find clients and now thinks the government should reconcile with the Taliban to turn things around. (Tim Craig/THE WASHINGTON POST)

These progressive 20-somethings, with their embrace of technology, education and Western culture, were seen as an emblem of Afghanistan’s bright future. They also formed the backbone of an urban workforce that thrived when more than 100,000 troops and billions of dollars of relief money flowed into the country after 9/11.

[Years after invasion, the U.S. leaves a cultural imprint on Afghanistan]

Now, as the drawdown of coalition forces saps revenue from the local economy, many younger Afghans appear more open to the idea of the Taliban assimilating into, and perhaps even changing, the existing government and constitutional order.

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Kurdish families begin 'death fast' over children's bodies left in streets

Violence and curfews have led to some bodies lying in the street of Diyarbakir for almost two months


Rozerin Cukur, whose body has been lying on the streets of Diyarbakir for almost two months (Sertac Kayar)

Alex MacDonald-Tuesday 1 March 2016

A group of Kurdish families are going on a “death fast” in protest at the inability to retrieve the bodies of their children from the streets of Diyarbakir in southeast Turkey months after they were killed.

Numerous families in the city of Diyarbakir have taken part in a 37-day vigil since their children were killed - either by Turkish state forces or crossfire from Kurdish militants - in the city’s historic Sur district, complaining of their inability to retrieve their bodies.

Mustafa Chukur, whose 17-year-old daughter Rozerin has been lying dead on the streets of the Sur for almost two months, said that he and his relatives would fast to death if the siege on Sur was not lifted and the bodies retrieved within a week.

The Diyarbakir governorate press office previously told MEE that it could not verify the status of the bodies while the violence was ongoing.

"Everything about the curfew area is just a claim, we cannot enter and we cannot check if the bodies are on the streets or not," it said.

"We can say nothing before the terrorists are cleaned from the area. After cleaning, we can give answers."

The Chukur family had previously been driven out of their village in southeastern Turkey in the 90s following its destruction by the Turkish military.

According to the pro-Kurdish Firat News Agency, Chukur said that everyone who stayed silent was also “responsible” for the deaths and called on Diyarbakir’s residents to rise up and prevent a “second massacre” in the city.

Sur has now been under curfew for 88 days after armed Kurdish activists primarily from the Patriotic Revolutionary Youth Movement (YDG-H) began digging trenches and erecting barricades in the city.

According to a report by the main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) over 80 percent of buildings in Sur are totally destroyed, and several buildings on UNESCO's World Heritage list have been seriously damaged.

The report said that clashes had distanced the residents of Diyarbakir from state institutions and that there was anger with both the military and the PKK.

Turkish security forces on Tuesday ordered residents to leave Sur and warned them not to use their children as human shields.

Making an announcement from armoured cars, Turkish police told residents that they would be held legally responsible if their children were harmed, according to Turkey's state-run Anadolu news agency.

"We don't want children to get harmed. We are worried about them. If the children get harmed, you will be held responsible legally. Do not use children as human shields," they said. The security forces also called on "PKK terrorists" to surrender.

Security sources claimed that 24 civilians had so far been evacuated since a "safe corridor" out of Sur had been opened at the weekend.

On Tuesday, the co-chairs of the pro-Kurdish People's Democracy Party (HDP), Figen Yuksekdag and Selahattin Demirtas, released a statement condemning the curfew in Sur, which they described as the "cultural, social, economic and historical heart of Diyarbakir".

"All that is happening in Sur in the moment, and all that will happen in the coming days, is a matter of humanity and human dignity," said the statement.

"We call upon all national and international democratic institutions and platforms to express a solid reaction against the current political and humanitarian crisis in Sur and act in solidarity with the people of Sur."

Violence exploded again in Turkey in July 2015, following the collapse of a two-year ceasefire between the Turkish state and the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK).

Since the launch of the PKK insurgency in 1984, over 40,000 people have been killed in fighting.

The PKK leadership now calls for autonomy for Kurds rather than an independent Kurdish state, though groups like the YDG-H - who are thought to be only indirectly linked to the PKK - have different long-term strategies.

China’s Coming Ideological Wars

In the reform era, economic growth reigned supreme. But now, a revival of competing beliefs has polarized Chinese society.

BY TAISU ZHANG-MARCH 1, 2016

For most Chinese, the 1990s were a period of intense material pragmatism. Economic development was the paramount social and political concern, while the various state ideologies that had guided policy during the initial decades of the People’s Republic faded into the background. The severe ideological struggles that had marked the end of both the 1970s and the 1980s had exhausted the population, leaving it more than eager to focus single-mindedly on an unprecedented bevy of economic opportunities.

Now the tide is changing yet again. Chinese society is apparently rediscovering, or at least re-prioritizing, its moral and ideological cravings. Over the past several years, ideological forces and divisions have moved back to the center of Chinese political and social life, and ideological tensions among Chinese elite are now arguably higher than at any point since the immediate aftermath of the 1989 protests. The image of a “post-ideological” China has become increasingly outdated.

Relatively few observers or policymakers, however, seem to entertain the possibility that Chinese elites are ideological creatures, or even that they may be dealing with an ideological population. This is a remarkable sea changewith profound implications for policymaking. Just a decade or two ago, many commentators had trouble accepting that Chinese statesmen — or even educated Chinese — were anything but Communist ideologues. In the early 2000s, the notion that Chinese elites no longer believed in Communism was still a novel one that sometimes triggered incredulity and backlash. By contrast, anyone today who insists that Communist ideals still hold sway over Chinese policymaking does so at considerable risk to his or her reputation as a serious China hand.

How did the idea of a post-ideological China arise? The charitable — and possibly correct — interpretation for this change is that it simply reflected a general shift in Chinese social attitudes. Chinese political and social discourse turned away from ideologically charged arguments in favor of the kind of flexible pragmatism that the former Chinese leaders Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin regularly advocated. There is also a less charitable interpretation: that China’s economic rise, and particularly its sustained growth during the global economic crisis, generated a sense of vulnerability and, consequently, an alarmist mentality among many Western analysts, who rushed to — and continue to believe in — the conclusion that Chinese policymakers were ruthless and efficient utility maximizers preying upon the softer, more idealistic, and democratically constrained developed world.

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Malaysian PM cleared of wrongdoing in $700 million scandal

In this Monday, Jan. 25, 2016 photo, Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak speaks at a conference in... Read more

By EILEEN NG

 -Jan. 26, 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Malaysia's attorney general said Tuesday that nearly $700 million channeled into Prime Minister Najib Razak's private accounts was a personal donation from Saudi Arabia's royal family, and cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing.

The announcement by Attorney General Mohamed Apandi Ali capped months of uncertainty for Najib, who has been fighting intense pressure to resign over the financial scandal in his biggest political crisis since he took power in 2009.

Najib welcomed Apandi's decision. "He has confirmed what I have maintained all along: that no crime was committed," Najib said in a statement.

 

Questions remained, however, about the donation. Apandi did not say why the Saudi royals made the donation or what the money was to be used for.

He said an investigation by the country's anti-corruption agency showed no criminal offence had been committed because the $681 million transferred into Najib's accounts between March and April 2013 was "given without any consideration" by the Saudi royal family as a personal donation.

"I am satisfied that there is no evidence to show that the donation was a form of gratification given corruptly," Apandi said.

He said Najib returned $620 million to the Saudi royal family in August 2013 as the money wasn't utilized. He did not elaborate and did not say what happened to the remaining $61 million.

The anti-corruption agency met with witnesses including the donor, he said.

Apandi said no reason was given for the donation, which was a matter between Najib and the Saudi royals.

Najib, however, indicated that it was for political funding.

"I appreciate that political funding is a topic of concern to many people," he said in his statement. He said he planned to submit political funding reform proposals for discussion.

Najib called the controversy an "unnecessary distraction" for the country and said it was time to unite and move on.

"I will now redouble my focus on the key issues that matter to Malaysia, especially combating the threat of terrorism, and strengthening the economy in the face of global headwinds," he said?.

Najib has been grappling with deep unhappiness over his leadership, with large street rallies in August calling for his resignation after documents leaked in July suggested that about $700 million was deposited in his private bank accounts from entities linked to indebted state investment fund 1MDB.

Najib denied any wrongdoing and later said the money was a donation from the Middle East. Since then, he has replaced critics in his government with loyalists, sacked the previous attorney general who had been investigating him, and cracked down on the media.

Saudi government officials in Riyadh had no immediate comment about the investigation. It was not mentioned on the state-run Saudi Press Agency early Tuesday.

Opposition lawmaker Tony Pua slammed Apandi's decision, saying the fact that it was a personal donation did not rule out corruption.

Pua said Apandi provided no new or convincing information to support his decision.

The scandal started with investigations into 1MDB, which was set up in 2009 by Najib to develop new industries but it amassed 42 billion ringgit ($9.8 billion) in debt. Critics have long voiced concern over its massive debt and lack of transparency. Najib still chairs its advisory board.

The political scandal contributed to the Malaysian currency plunging to a 17-year low last August.

Apandi also cleared Najib of graft at government-owned SRC International, a firm linked to 1MDB, over another 42 million ringgit ($9.8 million) from SRC that was deposited into Najib's account between December 2014 and February 2015.

He said there was no evidence to show Najib was aware of the money transfer, or that he had given his approval. Apandi said Najib had thought that all payments made from his accounts came from the donation by the Saudi royal family. No further details were available.

Support for Najib's ruling coalition has eroded in the last two general elections. It won in 2013, but lost the popular vote for the first time to an opposition alliance.

US Senators’ so Called Concern about “Tolerance Level in India”

Is it not like Pot calling Kettle black?

by N.S.Venkataraman

( February 29, 2016, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) It is reported that 8 US senators and 26 members of US House of Representatives have raised grave concerns about “ increasing intolerance and violence experienced by members of religious minority communities in India “.

Obviously, the above lawmakers in US have made such statement without studying the facts and ground realities in India and probably have reacted based on some reports provided to them by someone or the other. Holding the position as senators and members of U S House of Representatives, they ought to have been more responsible and more careful before issuing such statements.

Conditions in the US no better:

In recent times, we have repeatedly seen incidents in U S the members of minority community such as Hindus and particularly Sikhs being attacked, and even killed by some extremist groups. Feelings of hatred against Muslims are also whipped up in the US though the large number of Muslims living in U S do not hold any extremist views and they are loyal to the US, the country to which they have migrated willingly. On seeing such isolated incidents, nobody can say that U S has become an intolerant country.

Violent attacks on the blacks by the whites and by the whites and the blacks are not uncommon in U S though not frequent. The conflict between blacks and whites have always been talked about in U S though the government in the US do not make any distinctions between blacks and whites in its policies and laws. Can we accuse the whites in U S of being hostile to the blacks or vice versa because some stray elements speak and act against one race and colour or the other.

What is particularly surprising is that no one in U S seem to have disapproved the above negative statement of some US senators and members of U S House of Representatives, about such avoidable statements that unfairly tarnish the image of India and the people of India.

Under the circumstances, one cannot but suspect that the above senators and the members of the U S House of Representatives have some motivations. One wish that they have no such motivations but are only ill-informed and careless.

India is a tolerant country:

There are around more than 1.2 billion people living in India belonging to various religions, different castes in the same religion, speaking different languages, having a different type of skin colour and facial features, with a different socio-economic background. Millions of Indians belonging to different religions live in harmony and peace as neighbours without any animosity.

In Sabarimala temple in southern India, where millions of devotees visit every year, there is a mosque by the side of the Hindu temple and the Hindus who go to the Sabarimala temple visit the mosque also. In the same way, many Hindus visit the Velankanni church in Tamil Nadu every year during the annual festival .Many other similar examples can be readily given.

Just like U S, some isolated incidents take place in India and unfortunately, the section of media and political parties blow such incidents out of proportion and give huge negative publicity.

The fact is that whenever such incidents take place, police force act immediately, arrests the culprit and law take its own course.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been deploring and disapproving such activities at every opportunity and has made it very clear that his governance is oriented towards peace and happiness for all without making any difference between different people on the religious or economic basis.

Need to highlight the positives to defeat the negatives:

It is particularly shocking that some senators and members of U S House of Representatives, elected for the job by the enlightened citizens of US do not understand the basic facts that representatives of the people should be balanced in taking a view on any matter and should study matter in depth before arriving at conclusions and issuing statements.

Ever since the world was born, there have always been negatives and positives and the fight for civilization is the fight to overcome the negatives by the positives.

By highlighting some isolated incidents in India that are totally disproportional to the size and complexity of the country, the above lawmakers in U S have not only blackened their face but also caused serious doubts about the wisdom and pragmatic outlook of an average lawmaker in the US.

Sensex, Nifty post best gain in over 2 years as govt keeps fiscal deficit target

A broker laughs while speaking to a colleague, as they trade on their computer terminals at a stock brokerage firm in Mumbai, March 4, 2015.REUTERS/SHAILESH ANDRADE/FILES

MUMBAI | BY NEHA DASGUPTA AND MANOJ RAWAL- Tue Mar 1, 2016

The Sensex and Nifty posted their biggest gains in more than two years, while the rupee also rallied after the government stuck to its fiscal deficit target for the next financial year, raising hopes the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) would soon cut key policy rates.

A commitment by Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Monday to meet the fiscal deficit target of 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product is also raising hopes it would raise confidence among foreign investors after heavy selling this year.

The Nifty and Sensex indexes rose 3.4 percent each, their strongest daily gains since September 2013. 

The rupee rose to as much as 67.86 per dollar, its highest since Feb. 10, from its closing level of 68.4250/68.4350 on Monday.

The RBI was forced to step in to prevent the rupee from gaining too much, traders said, in a reversal of just a week ago when the central bank was selling dollars to prevent the currency from hitting a record low of 68.85 to the dollar.

Markets also gained tracking advances in Asian markets following China's monetary easing and downbeat manufacturing and service surveys that raised hopes of additional stimulus measures.

"Markets are rallying because the budget was good - fiscal deficit commitments were adhered to and there was no tinkering on the capital gains tax structure," said Varun Khandelwal, a director at advisory services provider Bullero Capital.

"Additionally, pressures in global markets have alleviated on the back of PBoC (People's Bank of China) liquidity injections and in anticipation of dovish stances by the Fed, and the ECB."

Traders expressed hope the RBI may step in to cut the repo rate even before its next scheduled policy review on April 5 given the central bank had pinned any further easing on the government's fiscal stance at its policy review last month.

A combination of a rate cut intended to support economic growth along with the government's pledge for fiscal discipline is also raising market hopes of a reversal in some of the strong foreign outflows this year.

Foreign investors sold a net $2.2 billion from stocks and debt in February, the highest monthly outflows since October.

"The momentum we've seen in rupee is because of the fiscal deficit and a possible rate cut," said Paresh Nayar, FX and fixed-income head, First Rand Bank in Mumbai.

India's benchmark 10-year bond yield fell 2 basis points to 7.60 percent after slumping as much as 18 bps on Monday, the sharpest single-day fall since June 2015.

(Editing by Biju Dwarakanath)

Jamaica must focus on its people not party politics

Patrick Maitland-Feb 29, 2016

Things are changing politically in Jamaica as for the first time the People’s National Party (PNP) was giving one term to govern following general elections on Feb 25. With a slight lead of 33-30 seats, the Jamaica Labour Party (JLP) defeated the incumbent and is set to form the new government during the next several days.

The JLP faced a similar rejection in the Dec 2011 elections and was the first ‘one-term government.’ But, a ‘one-term government,’ for the PNP was never expected in the so-called ‘PNP country’ where the party ‘run things’ for 26 of the last 30 years. In fact, from 1989-2007 it was always a PNP regime for almost two decades.

However, since independence 1962, both parties have had their fair share of managing Jamaica and are therefore responsible for our successes and failures. The people are now very frustrated with our political parties to the point that the number of undecided voters now peaks at 50%.

Jamaicans are now of the view that their political parties have each conspired and carefully developed policies to keep the respective party in power at the expense of the national good of Jamaica.

 Our human resource capital matches any developed countries with some of the most brilliant thinkers. 

Jamaica is located a few hours from the US – one of largest and most powerful nation. Brand Jamaica is well respected and fetches high price. Jamaica’s climate is suitable for various investment in tourism and agriculture.

Yet, for decades, Jamaica has struggled with low growth, high public debt and many external shocks that further weakened the economy. Over the last 30 years, real per capita GDP increased at an average of just one percent per year, making Jamaica one of the slowest growing developing countries in the world. 

According to the Statistical Institute of Jamaica, unemployment rate in Jamaica is about 13.2%, with youth unemployment of 38%, more than twice the national rate. Poverty headcount ratio at national poverty lines is estimated at 20% of the population. Murdering over a 1,000 people annually is a major issue affecting Jamaica. Widespread corruption and the misused of government resources are also among the depressing tendencies that keep the people poor. 

However, despite the maneuvering and other weaknesses of governance, democracy continues to be very vibrant and active in Jamaica as witnessed in the general elections that saw 63 candidates freely elected by the people. Nevertheless, we are very worried that if Jamaica continues to be plagued with serious social and economic issues it could threaten our democracy and plunge more people into further poverty. 

But, Jamaicans are generally very political along party line and will only support their respective party. 

The opposing party cannot do anything right and must be condemned for “destroying Jamaica.” Such misguided culture and attitude is not helping Jamaica and should also be condemned.

 Jamaicans voted for the Andrew Holness’ lead JLP with only a three-seat majority and after four years into her first term, dumped the Portia Simpson Miller administration. This is an indication that the people want real changes and are moving away from the strong partisan option.

 In our opinion, especially the young people are becoming mature and really don’t care which party is in power, they want tangible results to improve their living standard. They don’t want to remain poor and helpless. Therefore, we should always respect the wish of the voters and urge the JLP to get to work and address the issues of the people with urgency.

 The focus should always be on the people and not what is best to keep the party in power.   from www.streethypenewspaper.com

Human-animal studies academics dogged by German hoaxers

Editors of Dresden-based journal apologise after being fooled by fake PhD student’s paper on role of alsatians in totalitarianism

 The academics left clues to the hoax, such as calling a dog Rex – the star of a TV show popular in Germany. Photograph: Dennis Galante/Getty

Philip Oltermann in Berlin-Tuesday 1 March 2016

The findings unearthed in Christiane Schulte’s journal article were a revelation. The first fatality at the Berlin Wall, it showed, had not been human but a police dog called Rex. And a new law forcing East German border guards to keep their canine enforcers on a lead helped prevent a third world war.

Most shockingly, the 26-year-old PhD student revealed that the alsatians that patrolled the Berlin Wall were direct descendants of those deployed by the Nazis in Buchenwald and Sachsenhausen concentration camps, thus maintaining a “tradition of violence”.

In Schulte’s own words, the academic paper she published in a peer-reviewed German journal in December “revealed the prime importance of human-animal studies for contemporary research into totalitarianism”.

But two months after publishing these revelations, the editors of the Dresden-based publication Totalitarianism and Democracy have had to admit that they have fallen victim to an elaborate academic hoax.

In a statement published this week, the editorial team at the Hannah-Arendt Institute for Research into Totalitarianism said they had been “systematically deceived, ie through a faked CV and an apparently academic argumentation, which sought to convince the reader with detailed explanations, extensive footnotes and false archival references”. Christiane Schulte did not exist, and nor did the alsatians with totalitarian tendencies.

The hoaxers have since published their own mission statement. In an article entitled Plea Against Academic Conformism, a group of academics calling themselves “Christiane Schulte and friends” say they had wanted to instigate “a debate on why dedicated social criticism has become such a rarity in the humanities”.

The intention of the article, they said, had been to satirise the “animal turn” in postmodern theory: the attempt to interpret historical events through the perspective of affected animals. Such academic fashions, the group wrote, were “the waste products of leftist social critique which has sought refuge in academia”, but also signs of an “anti-humanist trend in philosophy”. While academics were competing with each other to follow the latest trend, they were failing to do the basic work of criticising social conditions.

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Eath Thora: Widespread Medicinal Herb in Asia and Noxious Weed in Northern Australia

Pic 1: Eath-thora plants– Sri Lanka

Pic 2: Eath- thora at flowering in Sri Lanka (January)

by Lalith Gunasekera

( February 29, 2016, Queensland, Sri Lanka Guardian) Eath- thora is a large handsome shrub originated in tropical Amazon Rainforest and can be found in Brazil, Colombia, Guyana, and Surinam. Due to its beauty, it has been cultivated around the world as an ornamental plant and has naturalised in many tropical regions in the world including tropical parts of Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Hawaii, the Caribbean, America, Fiji, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia.

Botanical name: SENNA ALATA

Family: Fabaceae

Common names: Eath-thora (Sinhalese), semiagathi (Tamil), akapulka (Philippines) ringworm bush, craw-craw plant, seven golden stick, Christmas candle, king of forest, emperor’s candlestick (English).

Pic 1: Eath-thora plants– Sri Lanka

A widespread species with a scattered distribution throughout Northern and Eastern Australia. It is most common in the coastal and sub-coastal parts of the Northern Territory and northern Queensland and also recorded in north-western Western Australia.

Although eath-thora has a wide ecological amplitude, preferred habitats are disturbed, rather open vegetation’s such as roadsides, river banks, rain forest edges, lake shores, margins of ponds and ditches, in open forest edges and lake shores. The plant can be grown up to 1400 m altitude but is most abundant at lower elevations. It is reported to tolerate an annual rainfall of 600-4300 mm and average yearly temperatures of 15-30C. The plant is very susceptible to frost.

Eath-thora is an erect tropical bush that grows 2-3 m high with large leather compound leaves. Leaflets are 8-20 pairs; 5-17 cm long and 2-5 cm wide have entire margins and round tips. Compound leaves are alternatively arranged along the stems.

The golden yellow or orange flowers are borne in elongated clusters (15-60 cm) at the tips of the stems or in the upper leaf forks. These clusters are borne on hairy stalks 15-30 cm long and contain numerous (20-40) densely crowded flowers. The individual flowers are borne on short stalks. They are initially held within dark yellow or orange coloured bracts, but these fall off as the flowers open. Each flower has five petals and two stamens.

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Sri Lanka: Over 4.500 Disabled in Jaffna Request Help

29/02/2016

Over 4,500 disabled in the Jaffna district have requested the government to include them in the state beneficiary grant scheme, a senior official at the Jaffna District Secretariat said. According to the data from the Secretariat, there were 8956 disabled in the district and of them only 2010 received the monthly grant of Rs 3000 to support themselves and their families.

Jaffna District Secretary N.Vethanayahan said he had forwarded a letter to the relevant authorities to increase the amount of the grant considering today’s daily expenses and to include other disabled people who would qualify for the programme. ”Every day we can see how these people struggle to lead their lives. I have not received a reply from the relevant ministries yet,” he said.

A Development Officer attached to the Jaffna District Secretariat said they receive many complaints from disabled people daily. “This week also we received two complaints of private bus owners refusing to accommodate disabled people in their buses,” he said.

“Most were disabled during the war, and 2034 of them suffer from depression and other psychological issues,” N. Uthayakumar, a counseling officer at the secretariat said. ”We have been conducting group therapy sessions in selected areas; but the problem we face is that we have to go in search of these people,” he said.

Along with the Central Government’s initiative to issue monthly grants through District Secretariats Islandwide, the provincial bodies too are involved in helping disabled people with limited self employment loans and other facilities, he said. The Social Services Department was set up under the purview of the Health Ministry of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) to look into issues faced by the disabled in the province but the department says they have not received the necessary funding from the government as proposed in their budget.

M. Rajamanoharan, a Social Officer at the department said, because of the limited funding they have had to reduce the number of beneficiaries in the projects they had undertaken. The department’s main role is to distribute equipment and other material disabled people need for their daily life. White canes, earphones, wheelchairs, crutches, and caliber shoes for polio-affected people are issued free of charge.

(Original caption ;The Forgotten People of Jaffna Want to Be included in state grant scheme)
Sunday Times

Statement of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, at the 31st session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva, 29 February 2016 

Distinguished Presidents of the Human Rights Council and the General Assembly – and President Lykketoft, we are delighted and honoured to see you with us this morning

Excellencies,
Colleagues, Friends,

I would like first of all to welcome His Excellency Choi Kyong-Lim, who is presiding over his first session of the Council, and to thank the former President, Ambassador Rücker, for his sterling work.

I am honoured to address this Council on the eve of its second decade. This is an anniversary that calls for more than rhetoric: it cries out for action, and decisive and cooperative leadership in defence of vital principles.

Human rights violations are like a signal, the sharp zig-zag lines of a seismograph flashing out warnings of a coming earthquake.  Today, these jagged red lines are shuddering faster and higher.  They signal increasing, and severe, violations of fundamental rights and principles. These shocks are being generated by poor decisions, unprincipled and often criminal actions, and narrow, short-term, over-simplified approaches to complex questions. All now crushing the hopes and lives of countless people. So the compression begins, once again.  This resurgent broad-based malice, irresponsibility and sometimes eye-watering stupidity, altogether acting like steam at high pressure being fed into the closed chamber of world events.  And unless it is released gradually and soon, through wiser policy making – where the interests of all humans override this strengthening pursuit of the narrowest, purely national, or ideological, agenda.  Otherwise - as the reading of human history informs us – its release, when it comes, will be as a colossus of violence and death. 

Mr. President,

When the key drafters, representing States, wrote the UN Charter and drew up the protective fortress of treaties and laws making up our international system, they did not do so because they were idealists only. They did it for security, and because they were pragmatists.  They had experienced global warfare, dispossession and the oppression of imperialism. They had lived “balance-of-power” politics, and its consequences – thrown violently into imbalance as it was by the feral nationalisms and ideologies of the extreme left and right. They knew, from bitter experience, human rights, the respect for them, the defence of them, would not menace national security – but build more durable nations, and contribute (in their words) to “a final peace”. And so, after the cataclysm of global war and the development of nuclear weapons, they created the UN, and wrote international laws, to ward off those threats. 

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Need For Both External & Internal Champions Of The Reconciliation Process

By Jehan Perera –February 29, 2016

Jehan Perera

AgrAt the next session of the UN Human Rights Council this March the government will need to present an update of its progress with regard to the resolution passed in October 2015. There has been some progress made by the government. More and more land in the North taken over by the military during the war is being returned, although about half of it still remains under military control. There has been a marked improvement in the freedom of movement and freedom of speech experienced in all parts of the country, and particularly in the former conflict zones. However, so far there has been little visible progress on establishing the mechanisms outlined by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in the run up to the last session of the UN Human Rights Council last year. It was in this context that his visit to the United States and the positive US endorsement of the Sri Lanka’s reconciliation process is important.

The new government earned much international goodwill for Sri Lanka last year in Geneva when it reversed the policy of the previous government. This had been to largely showcase the reports of the Lessons Learnt and Reconciliation Commission and the Missing Persons Commission as adequate to address the problems of the past. With regard to human rights violations alleged to have been committed by the Sri Lankan military the former government appointed military tribunals that did not find anything of substance that called for further action. By way of contrast, speaking in Geneva on behalf of the government, Foreign Minister Samaraweera said that the government planned to deal with the past through a fourfold system that would include a Commission for Truth, Justice, Reconciliation with a Compassionate Council of religious clergy attached to it, an Office of Missing Persons, a judicial mechanism with special counsel to be set up by statute and an Office of Reparations.

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Victuals and democracy

February 28, 2016, A senior political scientist has taken a former minister cum Opposition firebrand to task for what the former calls an attempt to trivialize the on-going constitution making process.

MP Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena has rhetorically asked whether the people can eat the Constitution much to the consternation of Prof. Laksiri Fernando, who is in the forefront of a campaign for constitutional reforms. He has apparently sought to stress the fact that the government ought to remain more focussed on bringing down food prices. Prof. Fernando has observed that such derisive remarks are being made at a time Sri Lanka is striving to put behind it a long spell of authoritarianism and anti-constitutionalism. He maintains that though a Constitution cannot be eaten it can guarantee the people’s right to eat (food).

Prof. Fernando asks the Joint Opposition to campaign for the incorporation of economic and social rights of the people into the new Constitution to be framed instead of trying to devalue the on-going constitution making efforts. The need for cast-iron constitutional guarantees to ensure that the rulers do not shirk their responsibilities cannot be overemphasized. But, such mechanisms will be of little use unless the national food production is stepped up to cater to the ever growing demand for comestibles. It is a mistake for the country to depend on imports to meet the huge shortfalls in food production. A top politician argued a few moons ago that it was much cheaper to import rice than to grow it locally! It is hoped that he won’t, in his wisdom, reduce local food production and increase imports.

The discontinuation of the subsidized fertilizer scheme is bound to have an adverse impact on the food and commercial crop production. Farmers are already up in arms in some parts of the country demanding fertilizer at affordable prices. The government does not seem to have realized the gravity of the situation.

Humans are no better than animals when they are left without food and water. One is reminded of Charlie Chaplin’s Gold Rush, a fine mix of pathos and humour, where two fortune hunters trapped in a cabin and starved, during a howling blizzard, cook a boot and succumb to hallucinations. There have been instances where victims of shipwrecks and plane crashes resorted to cannibalism to keep themselves alive.

The world history is replete with numerous food riots which snowballed into or fuelled mass uprisings that dislodged repressive regimes. That bread and salt played a pivotal role in the French Revolution is only too well known to merit elaboration. Writers like Linda Civitello have pointed out that in France bakers were once considered public servants in that bread was thought to be a public service necessary to keep the masses from agitating. The French apparently followed the Romans.

Interestingly, creature comforts, however necessary they may be to keep people happy, do not help prevent mass uprisings. In Libya, the Gaddafi government saw to it that the people wanted for nothing where their basic needs were concerned. But, the public rebelled against that government demanding democracy and toppled it. Today, they are left with neither democracy nor social welfare!

Populist as Minister Abeyewardena’s slogan at issue may be it is highly marketable. One may recall that in this country, too, unbearable food prices and scarcities have brought down governments. The SLFP-led administration fell in 1977 not so much because of its anti-constitutional acts but because of the suffering the people had to go undergo owing to chronic scarcities and restrictions placed on the consumption and transport of rice etc. Its fall marked the beginning of an era when food was freely available albeit at high prices but the people were burdened with a very bad Constitution.

The present government, before the last two elections, promised food at affordable prices besides a good Constitution and went so far as to offer a basket of selected food items at subsidized rates. The problem with people’s expectations is that they are always unreasonably and irrationally high. Therefore, the daunting task before the new administration is to ensure that the people have creature comforts plus a brand new Constitution guaranteeing their democratic rights if it is to avert trouble.